EARLY ON SEPTEMBER 9TH police in B0-gota, Colombia's capital, arrested Javier Ordonez, a taxi driver and father of two, for drinking alcohol in the street. A video that went viral shows two officers pinning him down. One pressed his knee against Mr Ordonez's back and tasered his hips. The officers stopped the filming, but witnesses say that Mr Ordonez was unconscious when they took him to the nearest police station. He died hours later.In the protests that followed, people in Bogota and other cities burnt buses and police stations. Police fired gunshots and tear gas and beat up bystanders; protesters hurled back stones. By the time the tumult died down, 13 people had died and hundreds of policemen and protesters had been injured. Colombia has never before seen such a display of rage against the police, says David Gomez, a security analyst.
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